World’s Biggest Warehouses and Factories - Logistics & Materials Handling Blog | Adaptalift Hyster World’s Biggest Warehouses and Factories 08 July, 2013 Filed under: This week we will take a look at something a little different, the world’s biggest warehouses and factories. The expanse of some of these warehouses is mind blowing and allows us to consider the work that is put in to not only building them, but the products that they produce. Boeing Everett Factory This factory is, by volume, the largest building in the world at a staggering 472,370,319 cubic feet, or 98.3 acres. Located in Washington, USA, it is an aeroplane assembly building owned by Boeing. The warehouse has been in commission since 1966 after Pan American Airlines signed a contract worth $525 million with Boeing to build 25 747s. The Everett Factory has also been home to Boeing 767s, 777s and the newest in the fleet, the 787 Dreamliner. In addition to the construction of Boeing aeroplanes, the factory has several cafes, a theatre and a museum.

Aerium The Aerium was initially designed to build enormous airships as a pioneering move for business logistics. Although the company behind this elaborate plan went bankrupt in 2002. The biggest freestanding hall in the world, located in Brandenburg, Germany, is now known as Tropical Islands Resort after the Malaysian Corporation, Tanjong, who spent a reported €78 million, bought the complex. The landmark covers a vast 184 million cubic feet and has several different themed areas. It is home to the world’s biggest indoor rainforest and has a 27-metre high water slide tower amongst many more attractions. The park opened in 2004, attracting close to a million visitors during its first full year, and employs approximately 500 people. Meyer Werft Founded in 1795, this privately held and family-owned business started out by building small wooden vessels. It now constructs some of the world’s biggest luxury passenger ships. Meyer Werft GmbH is one of the major shipyards in the world and approximately 700 ships have been built at the yard since its inception.

It gained international recognition through the construction of roll on/roll off ferries, passenger ferries, container ships, livestock ferries and luxury cruise ships. Located in Papenburg, Germany, Meyer Werft occupies 167 million cubic feet, retains some 2500 employees and has the largest roofed dry docks in the world. Constellation Bristol ‘Europe’s biggest booze warehouse’ covers 858,000 square feet with an internal volume the equivalent to 14,000 double decker buses! Situated in Bristol, England the complex can hold 57 million bottles of wine, which, if laid end-to-end, would stretch over 9,000 miles – the distance from London to Perth, Australia. The warehouse accounts for 15 per cent of the UK’s total wine and alcohol market with a staggering 800 bottles of wine bottled each minute. NASA Vehicle Assembly Building The Vehicle Assembly Building or VAB at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre was used from 1968-2011 to assemble American manned launch vehicles and is situated on the coast of Florida, USA.

The VAB, which covers 348,000 square feet in over 8 acres of land, was completed in 1966. It was originally built to allow for the vertical assembly of the Saturn V rocket but eventually was used for the shuttle’s external fuel tanks and flight hardware. The VAB is currently the largest single-story building in the world. Target Import Warehouse Unbelievably, this import warehouse has the fourth-largest footprint in the world covering a staggering 159,000 m². As well as the Boeing Everett Factory, this mega-warehouse is located in Washington State, USA and is one of four Target import warehouses across the nation, although the Washington branch is certainly the focal point of the four. The warehouse was built to distribute imported products to internal Target warehouses. Aviation geeks tour Boeing factory for 747s, 777s and 787s.

- CNN.com Boeing allowed aviation fans unique factory access during a February convention "Avgeeks" toured factories for 737, 747, 777 and 787 Dreamliner Growing avgeek community challenges legacy news media Everett, Washington (CNN) -- Sprawled out before us sits the exterior of the world's biggest building by volume. They make airliners here. Big ones. "Let's go see some airplanes!" says our Boeing VIP tour guide. I remind myself: This doesn't happen very often. Yeah yeah yeah, Boeing offers public tours of this 98.3-acre airliner factory north of Seattle every day. This ain't that. This is special. As part of a convention of aviation fans called Aviation Geek Fest , we're gaining ultra-exclusive access to the factory FLOOR. The public tour is limited to the balcony. We're about to walk knee-deep where Boeing gives birth to some of the world's biggest and most advanced airliners, including the 747-8 Intercontinental, the 777 Worldliner and the 787 Dreamliner. Hot damn.

But not so fast -- before we go inside, Boeing has laid down some rules: no photos, no video, for our eyes only. Here's a painful development: Our smartphones have been confiscated. Gulp. I'm already suffering from phantom phone pangs. Plane stuck at airport We enter through a small, inconspicuous door marked S-1. Suddenly, we're surrounded by partly assembled airliners in a room so big it takes on the feeling of an entire world. In some spots, we gaze across an unobstructed view measuring a quarter-mile. This building is so flippin' big that -- years ago -- it created its own inside weather patterns, including vapor clouds. They eliminated that by installing a special ventilation system. Today's factory forecast: avgeeking, with continued avgeeking and a favorable chance of avgeeking later in the day. IF YOU GO ... -Obtain tickets and tour buses at Future of Flight Museum adjacent to factory -Warning: the tour involves a one-third mile walk, 21 steep stairs and an elevator, but physcially challenged visitors can participate with advance notice. Tours last 90 minutes. -No photos or videos will be allowed during the tour.

-Children allowed on the tour must be at least 4 feet tall; no babies allowed; no child care facilities available. -Open seven days a week, except Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day Source: Boeing Here are a few cool tidbits: Jaw-dropping perspective The thrill of being so close to the planes literally stops you in your tracks. Seemingly everywhere you look there's another five- or six-story-tall airplane towering over you. Some are covered with a green, protective temporary coating. One Dreamliner tail is painted with the familiar British Airways red, white and blue. Another sports New Zealand Air's cool black-and-white. Boeing paints the tails before they're attached to the planes. Then they carefully adjust the tails for balance. Paint adds hundreds of pounds of weight, which would ruin the plane's balance if the tails were painted after being attached. Soon these behemoths will jet across vast oceans as they carry travelers to far-flung destinations. 'You've gotta have secret clearance' The planes' huge fuselages are joined together with the help of a giant piece of equipment called a "saddle." This U-shaped metal cage straddles the top of the planes during the body-joining process.

The "Wing Build" area -- where workers attach wings to the planes -- is the loudest part of the entire facility. The staccato of rivet guns pierces the heavy air. Whooshing vacuums suck up any dust that may be created when workers drill into the planes' lightweight carbon composite material. Security concerns in the plant are real. "Conversation-restricted area," says one sign. As we walk past a fenced-off zone, our guide quips, "You've gotta have secret clearance. I can't even go in there!" The rock star engine Then, like a holy relic brought back from the Crusades -- Boeing lets us touch "it." A GE90-115B jet engine dwarfs a Boeing worker. Guinness calls it the most powerful commercially produced jet engine in the world. By "it" we mean the GE90-115B . Guinness calls it the most powerful commercially produced jet engine in the world. We gather around this rock star engine like thirsty travelers at a desert oasis, each taking turns running our hands across its silver exterior. The lip of the engine's mouth feels rough, like it has countless scratches etched into it.

That design, engineers discovered, helps reduce noise. This 19,000-pound monster hangs from the wing of a giant 777, but the engine still looks humongous -- measuring more than 11 feet in diameter. In fact, Boeing says it's so big you could fit the body of a 737 airliner inside it. "There's no way to sense the sheer size of an airplane without being right there underneath it," says NYCAviation.com contributor Ben Granucci , enjoying his first Aviation Geek Fest. Engines like this make it possible for wide-body planes to fly long-distance routes nonstop with only two engines instead of three or four. In fact, the 777 flies many of the world's longest nonstop routes. In 2005 it set the world distance record for a nonstop commercial airline flight, jetting 13,423 miles from Hong Kong eastbound to London in 22 hours, 22 minutes. The world's top flying hauler Just a few hours earlier, a handful of aviation geeks were hanging out at a hotel next to Paine Field, the airport Boeing uses to test and deliver the factory's planes.

Then, Granucci tweeted out that the plane that hauls the most cargo by volume in the world just happened to be passing through. Good morning #AGF14 -ers! There is a Dreamlifter inbound, due to land at about 8:10 this morning. — Benjamin Granucci (@BLGranucci) February 15, 2014 Count me in. Soon, a dozen camera-wielding geeks are lined up outside the hotel to welcome the Dreamlifter -- a modified 747 -- as it lumbers in for a landing. "We're gonna be late for breakfast," says avgeek Steve Dillo as he snaps photo after photo. "But this is worth it." The thing roars like a lion, but it looks like a whale as it slows for touchdown. In the entire world, there are only four of these giant planes. Boeing uses them to ferry big sections of the 787 for final assembly here in Everett. Last year, when a Dreamlifter landed at the wrong airport in Kansas , it wasn't exactly a stellar moment. "We're gonna be late for breakfast," says Steve Dillo as he photographs Boeing's Dreamlifter.

"But this is worth it." The Avgeek News Network This is the fifth avgeek fest, co-sponsored by AirlineReporter.com and Everett's Future of Flight Museum . The February convention drew a record 300-plus participants from 18 different states and three countries. Former GM and Toyota engineer Philip McKenzie, flew 8,000 miles from Melbourne, Australia, to see how "things are laid out" in the factory. Vancouver Airport official Trevor Batstone traveled 100 miles from Canada. Who are these people -- these avgeeks? What defines them? "It's someone who always looks up in the sky when they hear a jet roar," says Ryan Ewing, 14, who runs airlinegeeks.com out of his Bethesda, Maryland, home. Ewing was right there in the thick of the geeks with his camera when the Dreamlifter came calling. The event was born from an aviation-obsessed online community that uses social media to organize and share information. Aviation news sites like Airchive , AirlineReporter, NYCAviation and AirlineGuys all share common friends, connections and interests. When news breaks, their informal social network sometimes challenges traditional news media.

This month AirlineReporter and a few other aviation sites broke news about the hijacking of an Ethiopian Airlines 767 in Rome about 30 minutes before many "legacy" news organizations, says AirlineReporter founder and editor-in-chief David Parker Brown . #BREAKING : Ethiopian Airlines' Flight 702 Squawks "HiJacking" for Reasons Unknown #ET702 details: — Airline Reporter (@AirlineReporter) February 17, 2014 Boeing's desire to connect with fans and fliers combined with the emerging power of the avgeek nation opened the doors to the exclusive Boeing tours, Brown says. "Boeing has increasingly realized how smart and educated about aviation avgeeks are." Baby Boeings The following day southeast of Seattle, Boeing opens up yet another factory for us to tour. This one is the birthplace of what Guinness calls the "most produced large commercial jet in aviation history" -- the 737. No public tours here. This is a tour for avgeeks and VIPs. "Avgeeks love getting access to places that are off limits," says Brown.

"It's all about exclusivity." Here's some 737 tour trivia: Blinking purple is bad for us here. Christian Ofsthus, Boeing senior manager —This place creates 38 of the planes every month on a moving assembly line. And they're pushing to increase that rate. "Even though we joke that the 737 is the 'Baby Boeing,' it's still a large and complex machine," says Granucci. "It requires precision to put it together. The fact that you can perform such precise work on a moving target -- I find that to be incredible." — The facility receives pre-assembled fuselages by train from a factory in Wichita, Kansas. — Workers attach wings to the fuselages. It takes about nine hours to put wings on a 737. —The planes also get "winglets" — the tiny, upward pointing wings you see on the wingtips of 737s and other airliners. These doodads reduce drag on the plane and make it more fuel efficient — by about 4%.

—Workers install seats on the planes by using a loading machine they call a "hay baler." — In an operation called "high blow," Boeing tests each plane's passenger cabin for possible leaks during pressurization. The procedure includes putting people inside the planes to listen for leaks. — Each 737 is made up of 42 miles of wire and 394,000 separate parts — If there's a problem on the assembly line, workers activate a purple flashing light -- alerting others that they need help. "Blinking purple is bad for us here," says Christian Ofsthus, a Boeing senior manager. "If there's something wrong, something doesn't fit, we need to do something about that." As the tour ends, we wind through an employee diner named for the World War II symbol Rosie the Riveter, and file back onto our bus. Driving off the property, we spot a train loaded with brand new wingless 737 fuselages headed to the factory behind us. That triggers spontaneous applause and scattered whoops throughout the bus. Well, you just can't get any geekier than that. "That is so cool," I hear someone say.

"Yeah," said someone else, "baby planes!" Part of complete coverage on Aviation Boeing Factory Tour « Customized Tours | Seattle's Fun Tour Guide Leavenworth Christmas Festival Book Now Visit the annual Christmas Lighting Festival in the picturesque Bavarian-themed mountain village of Leavenworth, Washington. (More info - click photo} Wear comfortable walking shoes and bring a jacket, as we go by the water and you may get chilly on overcast days. Bring an umbrella if appropriate, and don’t forget your camera. We’re your host in Seattle and are committed to showing you a memorable time, so be ready for a great tour! Alcohol is only served to those over age 21 who present ID at the wineries. All prices include tax and courtesy pickup. Gratuity is appreciated and graciously accepted. Boeing Tours All tours are conducted in English and last about 90 minutes. The Boeing Company does not permit still photos or video cameras on the tour. Children must be at least 4 feet (122 cm) tall to go on the tour. Visitors may not carry babies on the tour. There is no child-care facility at the Future of Flight & Boeing Tour, and there are no exceptions to these safety regulations.

There are no personal items allowed on the tour. These items include: purses, backpacks, cameras, binoculars, cell phones, etc. Lockers are available on-site, for a small fee, at the Future of Flight. The tour may require a one-third-mile walk, 21 steep stairs and an elevator ride. The Boeing Tour can be done by wheelchair and physically challenged visitors with advance notice. Please advise us when making reservations. There are restroom facilities and a café at the Future of Flight, but restrooms are not available during the tour. No food or drink allowed. Mt. Rainier Tours Besides snowcapped Mt Rainier, your tour includes glacial moraines, the Longmire Visitor Center and Museum, Narada Falls, Reflection Lake and Lake Louise. The Paradise Jackson Visitor Center offers various ranger-led interpretive talks about the mountain and its glaciers and wildlife. There’s also a picnic area and dining room food service, gift shop and rest facilities. Also, be sure to bring a sack lunch or money to purchase food at the Visitor Center concession. Food may be purchased at Paradise Visitor Center. Bring a lunch or cash to purchase your lunch and mementos of your visit.

Bring a jacket, since even in summer Paradise can be cool and often breezy. We allow ample stops for you to photograph the awe-inspiring scenery around you, so don’t forget your camera! Snow and animals are seasonal and their abundance may vary, driving routes may vary based on weather and road conditions, your guide will make necessary changes to enhance your tour experience. Discover Boeing: Tours of Boeing Facilities Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour in Everett, Wash. Boeing offers public tours at two of its facilities: The Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour is located in Mukilteo, Wash., 25 miles north of Seattle. Public tours of Boeing's Everett factory are available seven days a week. The Everett, Wash., facility is home to the 747, 767, 777 and 787 Dreamliner production lines and is the world's largest building by volume. Visitors will see airplanes being built for our worldwide base of airline customers. Learn more about the Everett, Wash., tour James S. McDonnell Prologue Room Air and Space History Exhibit in St. Louis The James S.

McDonnell Prologue Room Air and Space History Exhibit showcases the pioneers of aviation, their achievements and those of the thousands of workers who turned dreams into reality. The Prologue Room is located in the Boeing-St. Louis headquarters adjacent to Lambert-St. Louis International airport. The Prologue Room is open for self-guided tours weekdays during June, July and August only. Guided tours are available to groups of 10 or more throughout the year. Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour (Mukilteo, WA): Top Tips Before You Go - TripAdvisor Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour Write a Review Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour Is this activity accessible without advanced planning or reservations? Yes Is this attraction popular with tourists? Yes Does this attraction provide visitors with a taste of the local culture? Yes Would this be a good cold day activity? Yes Is this an outdoor attraction or activity? Yes Does this activity require advanced planning, ticketing or reservations? Yes Is this attraction a "must-see" location? Yes Is this attraction exciting, unusual, or risky to visit? Yes Would this be a good sunny day activity? Yes Would this be a good hot day activity?

Yes Map updates are paused. Zoom in to see updated info. Reset zoom Address: 8415 Paine Field Blvd, Mukilteo, WA 98275-3239 Phone Number: Sun - Sat 8:30 am - 5:30 pm Recommended length of visit: 2-3 hours Fee: Yes Description: Located approximately 25 miles north of Seattle, The Future of Flight... Located approximately 25 miles north of Seattle, The Future of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour is the only public tour of a commercial jet assembly plant in North America. Explore the interactive exhibits and displays in our 28,000-square-foot Aviation Center Gallery; then take a 90-minute tour of the Boeing plant where you can watch 747s, 777s, or 787 Dreamliners being assembled right before your eyes. There is a minimum height requirement of 4 feet (122 cm) for children participating in the Boeing Tour. To avoid disappointment please make sure to check height before purchasing tickets. This restriction is strictly enforced. ADA accessible tours are offered twice daily. Call in advance to ensure proper accommodations.

In the Future of Flight Aviation Center Gallery, the Family Zone is home to a number of different activities, all designed around a theme of aircraft manufacturing and assembly. Activity carts let visitors build a simple aircraft model, or use our Lego (and Lego-compatible) pieces to express new ideas about aircraft design. A kid-sized airport and aircraft allow future pilots of all ages to practice their take-offs and landings. Currently, the Family Zone is also home to a highly engaging, hands-on nanotechnology exhibit, and our new Bernoulli Table, an exciting interactive experience that teaches the relationship between the velocity of air and the pressure it exerts. Coloring and reading activities are also available, and drop-ins are welcome. Admission is free for ticket holders and for Future of Flight Foundation Members. read more Everett -- Thumbnail History - HistoryLink.org Everett -- Thumbnail History Tweet Once called the “City of Smokestacks,” Everett has a long association with industry and labor. Its first beginnings were two Native American settlements at opposite sides of the heavily wooded region, one on the Snohomish River and the other on Port Gardner Bay. Platted in the 1890s and named after the son of an early investor, it soon attracted the attention of East Coast money.

Over the next 100 years, Everett would be a formidable logging mill and industrial center. In 2005, Everett numbered 96,000 citizens. Beginnings The Port Gardner Peninsula is a point of land bound by the Snohomish River on its east flank and northern tip and by Port Gardner Bay on the west. People have inhabited the Everett Peninsula for more than 10,000 years. In recent centuries, Hibulb (or Hebolb), the principal village of the Snohomish tribe stood at the northwest point of the peninsula. Its location near the mouth of the Snohomish River and next to Port Gardner Bay provided both abundant food and transportation. Other villages were located across the waterways. The Snohomish fortified Hibulb with a stockade made of Western red cedar posts to guard against their local enemies, the Makah, Cowichan, Muckleshoot, and the occasional northern raider. On June 4, 1792, George Vancouver landed on the beach south of the village and claimed the entire area for the King of England. He named the bay Port Gardner for a member of his party. He apparently did not explore the river.

After this first contact with the Snohomish, the next 50 years were quiet until traders with the Hudson’s Bay Company on the Columbia River ventured through in 1824. Hudson's Bay Company records show that they explored the Snohomish River. They named it “Sinnahamis.” Its present name “Snohomish” dates from the U.S. Coastal Survey of 1854 when it was charted. In 1853, Washington Territory was formed. That same year the first white settlers in what would become Snohomish County established a water-powered sawmill on Tulalip Bay across the water from Hibulb. When the Treaty of 1855 created a reservation there for the Snohomish and other regional Indians, the settlers abandoned the operation and turned it over to the tribes. Gradually groups of white men from Port Gamble, Port Ludlow, Utsaladdy, and other Puget Sound points began to show up on the heavily forested peninsula to cut its giant timbers. They set up small logging camps in places reserved for homesteads.

During the Indian wars that erupted in King and Pierce counties after the treaty signings, the Snohomish area remained peaceful. Enterprising men making plans for a military road between Fort Bellingham and Fort Steilacoom in 1859 stimulated the exploration of the Snohomish River and its valleys. A ferry was planned at the spot where the road would cross the river. When Congress stopped funding the project, some of the young men working on the military road stayed there anyway. E. C. Ferguson claimed his own place and named it Snohomish City (1859). He was first to describe the area near present day Everett as full of trees: “with their long strings of moss hanging from branches, which nearly shut out the sunlight ... At the time the opening at the head of Steamboat Slough was not more than fifty feet wide" (Dilgard and Riddle). First Settlers on the Peninsula Dennis Brigham was the first permanent settler in the area that would become Everett. A carpenter from Worcester, Massachusetts, he came in 1861 the same year Snohomish County was organized. He built a cabin on 160 acres along Port Gardner Bay and lived alone.

Cut off from his nearest neighbors by the deep forests, he still had enough contact to gain the name of “Dirty Plate Face.” In 1863, the area saw increased settlement. Erskine D. Kromer, telegraph operator and lineman for the World Telegraph, took a claim just south of Brigham. When the venture ended he settled down with a Coast Salish wife and raised a family. Leander Bagley and H. A. Taylor opened the first store in the area on the point next to Helbo. Indians pushed out by homesteaders and loggers came by to trade. The store would change ownership several times. Also in 1863, on the snag-filled Snohomish River, E. D. Smith set up a logging camp at an angled bend in the river. Here the water was deep and an undercutting current kept his log booms against the bank. At the time there were no mills in Snohomish County. Logs were rafted down river and sent to mills around the sound. Everett’s future was foreshadowed when, during that same year, Jacob and David Livingston set up the first steam sawmill in the county near present day Harbor View Park on the bayside.

It was a short-lived venture. Settlement continued, although one early passerby in 1865 wrote that he saw nothing but woods. The settlers were there. Ezra Hatch claimed land in what would become downtown Everett and George Sines claimed land on the riverside. Together with Kromer, they would hold the most valuable holdings in the future city. There were others: Benjamin Young, George and Perrin Preston, J. L. Clark, and William Shears. They lived in simple log cabins scattered around in the woods, but when Bagley sold his share of the store to J. D. Tullis with the right to lease a portion back for a home and shipyard, Everett industry arrived. In 1886 he built the small sloop Rebecca which he sailed throughout the area. Eventually, the Prestons bought out all the shares to the store. George and Perrin Preston with his Snohomish wife Sye-Dah-bo-Deitz or Peggy would give the name Preston Point to the ancient Snohomish center.

Between the 1870 and 1880 census the white population in Snohomish County increased from 400 to 1,387, of which a minimal amount was found on the peninsula. Neil Spithill and his Snohomish wife Anastasia, the daughter of Chief Bonaparte, settled on the river where the peninsula jutted into it like a left-hand thumb. In 1872, Jacob Livingston filed the first townsite (“Western New York”) on Port Gardner Bay not far from his failed sawmill. John Davis settled at Preston Point where 50 acres were diked, and between the Snohomish River and the sloughs crops of oats, hay, hops, wheat, barley potatoes, and fruit began to appear. E. D. Smith continued to expand his logging businesses, employing 150 men. The area’s first postmaster, Smith platted the town of Lowell in 1872. In 1883, the U.S. government began snag-removal and cleared other impediments on the river. With the coming of mechanized lumber and cedar shingle production, several mills located in the area.

Smith began construction on his own mill in 1889 the same year Washington became a state. Booms and Busts Statehood brought celebration and speculation. Connection to the area via the Seattle and Montana Railway was close at hand, but when James J. Hill announced that his Great Northern Railway would come over the Cascades to Puget Sound, many people thought that meant the railroad would come to the peninsula. There was money to be made. First came the Rucker Brothers, Wyatt and Bethel and their mother. They bought the old Dennis Brigham homestead property on the bayside in 1890. They built a house and planned to start the townsite of “Port Gardner.” Joining them was William Swalwell and his brother Wellington. The Swalwells picked up a large section of the Spitlhill’s claim on the river covered with a growth of “timber so dense that trees on all sides touched the little cabin” (Roth). Frank Friday, who bought the old Kramer homestead from Kramer's widow added to the real estate mix.

This juxtaposition of bayside to riverside settlements set the layout of the future city streets, though the Swalwell’s Landing, as it became known, was separated from the bay by “a mile of second-growth timber, impassable underbrush and a marshy area near the center of the peninsula” (Dilgard and Riddle). Things began to heat up when Tacoma lumberman and land speculator Henry Hewitt Jr. (1840-1918) arrived in the spring of 1890 with $400,000 of his own money, dreaming of a great industrial city. After learning that one of John D. Rockefeller’s associates, Charles L. Colby (1839-1896), was looking for a site for the American Steel Barge Company of which he was president, Hewitt met with him. He convinced him that the peninsula with its river and bay access offered the perfect location for that and other industrial concerns. Impressed, Colby talked it up with friends and relatives. Once they were on board, Hewitt immediately approached the Ruckers, Friday, and Salwell and enticed them to join him.

They transferred half of their holdings, nearly 800 acres, to the syndicate backed with the East Coast money of Rockefeller, Colby, and Colgate Hoyt, a director of the Great Northern Railroad. Hewitt also bargained with E. D. Smith for a paper mill. In November 1890, the group incorporated the Everett Land Company. They made Hewitt president. For a time they met in offices at E. D. Smith’s boarding house in Lowell. By spring of 1891, the peninsula began to hum as land was cleared for a nail factory, the barge works, a paper mill, and smelter. Five hundred men graded, surveyed, and platted the townsite. Hewitt Avenue, one and half mile long and 100 feet wide, was cut from bay side to riverside. The townsite of stumps became Everett, after the son of Charles Colby. Over the months, the city of Everett saw astonishing growth. Before the Everett Land Company lots went on sale, Swalwell jumped the gun and began selling his own lots on banks of the Snohomish River in September 1891.

He built a large dock for the sternwheel steamer traffic. Dubbed the “cradle of Everett,” Swalwell’s Landing boomed at the riverside foot of Hewitt, at intersection of Chestnut and Pacific. The Pacific/Chestnut community was a wild west town with gambling and prostitution along with the offices of Brown Engineering Company in charge of platting the townsite, "Workingman’s Grocery,” a small shoe store, another grocery store, a tent hotel, meat market, and barber shop. The streets were muck choked, its sidewalks made of thrown down planks. Farther south at Lowell, Smith built a dock for his new paper mill already in production. On the bayside, the Everett Land Company built a long wharf at 14th Street on which a sawmill was built at the end. They also built an immense warehouse of some 400 feet and a fancy brick hotel, the Monte Cristo, three stories high. By the time the company started selling their residential and commercial property in late 1891, the building frenzy had attracted the nation.

“An Army of Men at Work On a Mammoth Establishment,” the headline in the newly established Port Gardner News boasted in September 1891. By the spring of 1892, Everett resembled a city albeit with stumps. There were frame homes, schools, churches (land provided by the Everett Land Company), and theaters as well as 5,600 citizens, a third of them foreign born (mostly English and Scandinavian) enjoying streetcar service, electricity, streetlights, and telephones. The Everett Land Company won a suit to own the waterfront. The promise of riches in the mines in the Cascades spurred the building of the Everett-Monte Cristo railroad from there to a smelter on the peninsula. In April 1893, Everett incorporated by election. Then came trouble. In May, the Silver Panic caused a national depression that slammed into Everett. Factories closed down. Banks failed. Wages dropped 60 percent. The railroads either failed or faltered. People left in droves. By 1895, Rockefeller started to withdraw his investments. Hewitt was dismissed from the Everett Land Company. Colby took over.

The lack of return on fees nearly bankrupted the city government. The streetlights were turned off. Against this background the town of Snohomish fought the struggling city of Everett over which would be the county seat. Everett finally took the claim away in 1897. A Second Wind Everett began to recover in 1899 after Rockefeller's Everett Land Company transferred its holdings to James J. Hill's Everett Improvement Company. The railroad magnate saw benefits for his Great Northern Railroad. He sent 42-year-old John McChesney as his representative. Industrial growth improved. Work continued on dredging the river and the bay. Frederick Weyerhaeuser, neighbor of Hill in St. Paul, Minnesota, came to Everett and founded the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company. He built the world’s largest lumber mill which produced 70 million feet by 1912. David A. Clough and Harry Ramwell formed the American Tugboat Company.

By 1903, the Polk Everett City Directory boasted of 10 sawmills, 12 shingle mils, a paper mill, flouring mill, foundries and machine shops, planing mills, a smelter, an arsenic plant, a refinery, “creosoting” works, a brewer, a sash and door plant, an ice and cold storage plant, and a creamery. Industry employed more than 2,835 men. Telephone subscriptions went from 493 in 1901 to 980 with 23 women employees and eight linemen. Secret societies as wide ranging as the Elks and the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Catholic Order of Foresters and the Improved Order of Red Men “meeting at next great camp in the Hunting Grounds of Aberdeen” (Polk) flourished. Times were good. In 1907, Everett passed the First Class City Charter and boomed after the San Francisco earthquake and fire brought huge orders for Northwest lumber. The city’s own big fire in 1909 destroyed parts of the city, but did not deter future growth.

Three years later its population reached three times its size in 1900 -- 25,000. Ninety-five manufacturing plants, “including 11 lumber mills, 16 shingle mills and 17 mills producing both” (Shoreline Historical Survey,) dominated the area. Unions also dominated the city, making it one of the most unionized in the country. There were 25 unions in all. Of these, the International Shingle Weavers Union of the American Federation of Labor was the strongest. The work they did at shingle mills was dangerous. The bolter used a circular saw with a blade that stood 50 inches in diameter and had three-inch teeth. A man pushed the log toward it at waist height with his knee and hands. Men fell or were pulled into it. Of the 224 people who died in Everett in 1909, 35 were killed in the mills -- almost one a week. Labor unrest grew and strikes threatened.

In 1916, the shingle weaver’s strike culminated in a bloody confrontation at the city dock when two boatloads of Industrial Workers of the World members sailed up from Seattle to demonstrate support of striking shingle mill workers and free speech. Five workers on the steamer Verona and two deputies on the dock were killed. Some 30 others were wounded. The strike ended not long after. This became known as the Everett Massacre. During World War I, Everett benefited from the demand for lumber, but for the rest of the twentieth century the city saw many down times as it went through a national depression in 1920, the Great Depression, and problems with continual silting in the river channels. Always a lumber and industrial town, it began to diversify. A Works Progress Administration project in 1936 created Paine Field on 640 acres of land owned by Merrill Ring Logging and the Pope and Talbot Company eight miles southwest of the city. The airfield established aviation and eventually a military presence in the area. The county matched federal dollars. Military Bases During World War II the field became a military base. Its name was changed to Paine Field in honor of Lt.

Topliff Olin Paine, pioneer aviator from Everett killed in a 1922 Air Mail Service crash. An Army Air Corps unit moved in and stayed for five years. Runways were improved and fueling capabilities added for certain aircraft types. Alaska Airlines started a presence. The military returned during the Korean War (1950-1953) taking over the control tower, but withdrew in 1968. This opened the way for Boeing Corporation. Already owners of acreage north of the airfield, Boeing built the world’s largest building by volume (472 million cubic feet) for their radically new 747 jetliner. Construction on Naval Station Everett began in November 1987. In January 1994, Navy personnel moved into the completed Fleet Support and Administration buildings and officially began operations. Currently, Everett is home to three frigates, one nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, one destroyer, and a Coast Guard buoy tender. It is the United States Navy’s most modern base. In 2005, the city of Everett enjoyed growth and revitalization.

During the past 20 years, the downtown area has been upgraded and some of the historic structures have been restored. Restaurants, shops, and parks line the bayside of the city. Industrial parks are planned for riverside. A community college and homes stand around Preston Point. Dennis Brigham and E. D. Smith would both be amazed. Henry Hewitt would say that his dream has gone on. This essay made possible by: The State of Washington Washington State Department of Archeology and Historic Preservation Hewitt Avenue looking east, Everett Postcard Courtesy Everett Public Library Swalwell's Landing, site of newly platted Everett, 1891 Photo by Frank La Roche, Courtesy Everett Public Library (Image No. 1056) Birdseye view of the Everett Peninsula, ca. 1893 Courtesy City of Smokestacks

Question: The Everett Factory in Washington state, USA is the world's largest building, which company own it?
Answer: Boeing